A Story of Shattered Memories
by ConfusedStarfish
Summary: My life has been surrounded by tragedies since I can remember. Most everyone I was close to as child has died or vanished. Now three years later, I'm finally moving far away from the town where the murders happened and I finally feel like I can start over again. But when new murders and disappearances start happening here. I feel as if fate has another plan for me. RyouBakura/OC
1. Circus

**A/N: Ok so I was literally writing and outlining this story for like 4-5 months and then got super busy with school and forgot about it. I've already outlined the whole story(besides the very ending), written the first four chapters, and typed out the first three. So, on the bright side it would be pretty easy to finish if you guys like it enough. And if you like my story than please REVIEW, otherwise I'll get lazy and forget about it. But enough of my rambling, ON WITH THE PROLOGUE.**

_A Story Of Shattered Memoirs_

_**Prologue - The Circus **_

_"Where am I?"_

A girl wonders to herself, as she begins to gain consciousness. She was in a dark room, surrounded by mirrors. It looked like the inside of a fun house at an amusement... But how did she get here? And why was she there?

_"...Is that music?"_

She wondered to herself, as she began to listen. It sounded like a theme that would be played at a Circus, and for some strange reason it gave her an eerie feeling. But then, she remembered where she was. She had been invited to go to the Circus by a couple of her friends. But, what were their names? Her thoughts were shortly interrupted, when she noticed her reflection in the mirror.

_"Is that me?"_

The girl staring back at her had long natural looking red hair, with bangs on the left side of her face. She looked to be around 16 years of age, and was wearing a school uniform. A flicker of pain then suddenly erupted from her right shoulder. She quickly snapped her head to look at the location of her pain. Her eyes widened as she saw what looked be a large gash on her right shoulder. She then turned her attention back to the mirror. That's when she noticed that the more she looked at her reflection, the more scars she noticed throughout her body.

_"How did this happen?"_

She attempts to stand, signaling a sharp pain in her knee, which causes her to collapse. The girl then re-attempts to stand again, her whole body shaking, as she began to rise. A wave of hope overcomes her, when she notices a flicker of moonlight seeping through a cracked door in the next room over. She stumbles to the door and exits the abandoned building cautiously. She was now on a dirt path surrounded by canvas tents. But that wasn't what alarmed her. What alarmed her, was an crowd of stone statues, scattered throughout the dirt path.

She limped over to the nearest statue, which resembled that of a little girl. The detail was absolutely remarkable. You could make out every freckle on the statue's face, and spot every individual hair carved on the small statue's head. She could see every fiber in the statue's dress, and all the threads in it's shoe laces. She'd never seen anything quite like it... But, what was that next to the statue's leg?

_"Blood?"_

Immense fear overcame her, as she looked around to see blood spatters and severed limbs spread throughout the dirt path. What the hell was going on? All of the faces on the statues looked horrified. The more she looked at her surroundings, the more grotesque images that flashed into her head.

Memories. She could feel them coming back. Not the memories of how she got here, or who invited her here. But the ones she's spent years trying to confide. Her whole frame began to shake as she attempted to repress the memories that were beginning to haunt her.

_"Mom."_

...

_"Dad."_

She begins backing up, but loses her balance and falls back. She lied there, eyes closed, completely lifeless. She lies there until a shadow of a figure standing above her overtakes her senses. She opens her eyes to look up and see a pair of piercing mahogany eyes, staring down at her.

"Found you."


	2. A New Beginning

_**Chapter One - A New Beginning**_

This is a story. A story of a girl. A story of a girl whose life had been surrounded in tragedy from an early age. A girl whose memories had been built on nothing but lies and illusions. A girl who was about to discover the truth.

The girl's name was Clarice Richards. She had been living with her aunt in a small town around an hour away from London, called Wendover. Clarice loved living in the small town of Wendover when she was younger. But now all she seemed to see when she looked around the small town was disturbing memories of what had happened there. Luckily though, her aunt worked as a sales manager for KaibaCorp, and had just received a promotion which prompted her and Clarice to move to Domino City. Domino City was a fairly large city located in America, right next to the city of Chicago.

"Oh, Clarice! You're going to love it here~!" Her aunt said singingly.

Her aunt's name was Marie. She was a tall brunette woman, who looked to be around her mid 40s, and she looked as if she had spent far too long in a tanning bed. But other than that, she was still a very attractive woman. She had a warm smile and an upbeat personality to match. She enjoyed teasing Clarice quite a bit, which Clarice didn't mind.

"You know, Martin moved here quite some time ago, in the apartment building next door. And he said this city is absolutely, to _die_ for! And if I'm not mistaken, I think Ryou moved in with him a year ago or so." Marie said, unsure.

Martin was aunt Marie's brother. He had been good friends with Ryou's father, Benjamin. Clarice hadn't seen Martin since he had moved, but she remembered him as being a nice man. Plus, he was kind enough to take Ryou in for the past three years, after the _incident_. So he couldn't be all bad, she mentally decided.

"He did. And it was three years ago." Clarice replied, slightly sarcastic.

Clarice and Ryou had been childhood friends. Actually friends wasn't the word for it. They had been absolutely inseparable growing up. In their defense, their fathers had been best friends which invertedly led to their early introduction. She'd be lying if she said she hadn't missed him for the past three years. Of course, they had continued to e-mail each other after he had moved. But it just wasn't the same as seeing each other in person.

"Oh that's right! And you better tone down the attitude little missy!" Marie said jokingly.

Clarice stuck out her tongue out in response, and they both laughed. She then, went to her room to continue unpacking in her and her aunt's new apartment. A few moments later, they heard a knock at the door.

"I'll get it! " Her aunt called out from another room. She heard her aunt unlock and open the door. "Oh, Ryou! You're here so soon,"

Clarice could feel her heart beat out of her chest. He was here? So soon? They weren't expecting him and Martin to visit for at least a couple more hours. She was nervous. She was excited to see her best friend again. But, she had to admit that she might have had, a super tiny small microscopic crush on him, while growing up. Okay, maybe it was a huge crush. But she'd never admit that to him. He was her best friend, and quite frankly her only friend.

Unless she counted Aunt Marie. But she didn't, so there was absolutely no way she would attempt to ruin the only real friendship she had. But, he was just so cute and... Did she just say she thought he was cute? Damn, this was bad. She tried to wash her mind of her last thought. He was NOT cute. She did NOT like her best friend. She then peeked outside the door to get a glimpse, of him and her aunt talking. _"Damn, he's still cute." _She silently thought to herself, as she continued to spy on their conversation.

"So, Martin's on a business trip this week?" Her aunt questioned.

"Yes, his job requires him to go on quite a few of those. He wanted me to give you, his deepest apologies." The young boy with white long hair said, politely.

"Well, tell him that it's no problem! We're practically neighbors now. I'm sure we'll get to see each other all the time!" Marie said enthusiastically.

Ryou, pauses for a brief second.

"Yes, of course... By the way, is Clarice here? I'd like to say hello to her, if it isn't any trouble."

"Of course not! CLARICE GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE. RYOU WANTS TO SAY HI!" Marie screams at the top of her lungs.

Clarice is taken back a bit, by how loudly her aunt called for her, and jumps slightly in reaction. She then, loses her balance, and stumbles through the cracked door. "Aunt Marie, you do realize that our apartment only has one story, right?" Clarice says slightly agitated, while massaging her forehead. She suddenly remembers that Ryou's in the room, and quickly stands up and brushes herself off.

"Hi, Ryou. It's to see you again." She says, greeting him.

"Clarice!" He wraps her in a big hug. He then pushes out of it, his hands still on her shoulders. "It's so great to see you again!" He said.

He seemed really happy to see her. But, he looked different... He looked hurt, maybe? She couldn't exactly figure out what was different. But it reminded her of how he looked the day after his father died. He changed after that, not that he became a bad person or anything. Just different. The look in his eyes was different.

_"I think I changed too... After they past."_ She thought solemnly to herself.

Ryou began talking about how they would both be attending Domino High School together, and how they may get several classes together. But Clarice couldn't concentrate on what he was saying. She saw, what had _happened_ in his eyes. She couldn't stop thinking about _them_. She couldn't stop thinking about _that day_.

She remembered their blood on her hands. Their unrecognizable faces. Their butchered bodies scattered across the room, burned in her memory forever. The blood stains and severed limbs on the furniture. On the carpet. On the ceiling. On the walls. Inaudible screams echoed throughout her mind. Her fists shot up clenching her head, in a vain attempt to stop these haunting memories from puncturing her brain.

But, it was no use.

"Clarice, are you alright?" a very distraught, Ryou asked.

Unbeknownst to him, she couldn't hear a single word he was saying. All she could hear was the sound from the visions of her past. The sounds of screams shacking her body. The feel of tears streaming down her face. All of her senses were suddenly tuned to the hallucinations of her past. Until suddenly...

Black.

She couldn't see anything. She couldn't feel anything anymore.

Just, black.

Finally the memories had vanished, again. But she knew it wouldn't be the last time they would haunt her. It never was.

She awoke to see a very worried and confused Ryou staring down at her, beside the couch she was currently occupying. He called out to Marie to let her know that Clarice had woken up. Marie immediately rushed over to the couch, and trapped the sickly girl in a bear hug.

"MY GOD CLARICE! We were both so worried about you! Are you alright? Do you feel dizzy? Are you going to vomit? Please tell me if you're about to vomit, because this is a new shirt and if I get anything on it I'll-,"

"Aunt Marie! I'm fine! I think I just haven't been eating enough, because I've been so stressed out about moving and all. But I'm fine, I promise." Clarice lied.

"Well, I hope you are. Ok dear, let me go ahead and cook you some soup, to hopefully help you feel better." She turns to Ryou. "Would you like to join us for dinner?" She asks.

"Oh, no. I'm honored, but I really need to get home. I have a lot of homework to complete. And I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to finish it if I stayed."

"Oh, no! It's fine! Don't worry about it! School should always come first. I'll need to be sure to send Clarice to bed soon too. So, she can be ready for school tomorrow." Marie stated.

With that, they said their final goodbyes to Ryou and he walked home. Shortly after that Clarice and her aunt ate dinner and went to bed.

-**o**o**o**o**o**-

The next day, Clarice woke up early to get ready for school. She tried on her new school uniform, that her aunt had ordered and rushed to the kitchen to eat breakfast.

After that, her aunt informed her that she would be giving her a ride to school. But also, that is was only for this morning, so Clarice could learn her way to the school. With the promotion that her aunt got, she received not only a lot more money but also, a lot more hours. So she wouldn't have time to give Clarice a ride to and from school every day.

But according to Zoogle maps, the school wasn't but a mile or so away. A part of her hoped that maybe her and Ryou could walk to school together, since his apartment building was next to theirs. After a few minutes, her and her aunt arrived at the school. They said their goodbyes and good lucks, and she began to head towards her classroom.

Her first few periods, were anything but exciting. First period was science, her teacher didn't seem to do much. All he did today was give the class some worksheets that took around 15 minutes to complete, then let the class talk the rest of the period. She did in fact, meet a nice girl named Miho in that class. She was a bit shy at first, but she was very friendly, which Clarice appreciated.

In her second period class, the teacher had a strict no talking policy. And Clarice decided that since she still wanted to maintain living, she would not try to disobey her teacher. 3rd period was Spanish, where she met a couple of friendly people who sat next to her in class. Things really seemed to be looking up for her. So far, she had really like this school, a lot better than her old one at least.

4th period was History, there she noticed that Ryou was in her class. She shyly waved at him, and then she met Mr. Kalphone, who was a man in his mid 40s who looked like he had started balding at the top of his head. He seemed like a very serious and efficient person. He politely welcomed her to his class, and directed her to her assigned seat. She walked over to her new seat, where she met a tall brunette girl whose seat was located right next to hers.

"Hi! Clarice, right? My name's Tea. Aren't you that girl from England? I heard a few other students talking about you moving here earlier and-"

"MRS. GARDNER." Teas was interrupted by the teacher. "Is there something you would like to share with the class?" He asked sternly.

"No, sir! Just trying to make the new student feel welcome." She replied.

"Well, please refrain from doing so until after I'm done teaching. Alright?"

"Yes, sir!"

Tea gestured towards Clarice to let her know that they would continue their conversation later. Then, she casually went back to taking notes on Mr. Kalphone's lecture. The teacher's lecture continued for hours, or at least that's what it felt like for Clarice and assumingly, everyone else in the class.

Eventually, he quit lecturing and allowed the class to take a break for lunch. Apparently the cafeteria's kitchen had broken down, and they would have to brown bag their lunches and eat in their classrooms. Clarice was relieved to say the least. She really didn't want to be forced to wander aimlessly across the cafeteria in search for Ryou, or be forced to sit in a bathroom stall by herself.

But before she could even motion to find her best friend, she was stopped by none other than the friendly brunette girl from earlier.

"Hey! Sorry, about Mr. Kalphone interrupting us earlier. He gets like super strict when people talk during his lectures." Tea said.

Clarice laughed, "It's cool, a lot of teachers at this school seem to be like that."

"Haha, tell me about it... But anyways, I'm Tea, and the girl sitting behind me's name is Hannah"

"Hey, what's up England?" She somewhat, asked. She had dirty blonde hair, and a very relaxed posture. Clarice could tell she had a tomboy type of personality.

"And the girl sitting behind you, is Lara." Tea continued.

"It's nice to meet you!" Lara said with a wide smile across her face.

"Ignore her, she's a goodie too shoes. Stick with me, if you want some real fun." Hannah said to her jokingly.

"Please! More like hang out with her, if you want to get arrested." Lara replied, playing along.

"Oh, come on! It was only three times!" Hannah defended.

"Hey, is it true that you're from England? " Tea asked, re directing the conversation's focus back to Clarice.

"Yeah. Why?" She answered.

"That's really cool!" Lara said. "It's really funny though, because we had another kid move here from England a couple of years ago."

"You mean, Ryou?" Clarice asked.

"Yeah. Did you guys already meet?"

"No we grew up together back in England. We both lived in Wendover." She answered politely.

"No, way! Small world, I guess." Hannah commented on the discussion.

"Huh, that's really cool," Tea began. "Are you guys still-?"

"HEY TEA! OVER HERE!" A boy with blonde shaggy hair called walking from across the room."Or did you decide to ditch us for your new best friend, here?" He said.

... Was he kidding? Clarice really couldn't tell, she'd never been an expert on handling social situations. She was always pretty reserved at her old school. Never the less, she decided to laugh awkwardly, just in case it was a joke. And apparently it was, she realized this when he shrugged off the comment and started to laughing.

"Oh, Joey. You know I could never bail on Tristan or Yugi. You, maybe. But not them." Tea replied, sarcastically.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!?" Joey responded defensively.

Tea responded by giggling, and then turning to Clarice. "That reminds me! I need to introduce you the gang."

Tea then began to lead her to the other side of the classroom, away from the boy named Joey.

"Hey! I'm in this group too, ya know! Why don't you introduce her to me?" Joey said, fairly loud.

"Oh, sorry Joey! I'm too busy ditching you for my new best friend, to hear you!" Tea yelled sarcastically while walking away from Joey.

Joey responded with some sort of inaudible comeback, while Tea turned to Clarice giggling at Joey's reaction. "That's Joey. He seems tough when you first meet him. But deep down inside, he's just a giant goofball."

Clarice heard Joey say "I heard that!" from behind her, but she continued walking along with Tea to the other side of the classroom.

Tea led her to a small boy with tall multi colored hair, sitting in a desk. Ryou and another boy were surrounding the desk talking to the small boy. The boy standing next to Ryou, was tall and had brown spiked hair.

Tea introduced him as Tristan. And she introduced the smaller boy with the crazy hair as Yugi. Clarice couldn't explain why, but she got a good feeling around him. She almost felt, safe around him. She couldn't quite explain it. Tea, then began to introduce her to Ryou, but Clarice said it wasn't necessary because they had already met.

"Really? How do you guys know each other?" Yugi questioned.

"Well we use to live together," Clarice answered cheerfully, while receiving strange glares from Yugi, Tea, Tristan and Joey whom had just recently joined the group's conversation.

"No, no! It was nothing weird, or anything!" She continued, while wondering why they would assume something weird about them living together. I mean they'd be living with an adult too. It's not like either of them was living by them self, or anything. "You see, it's just that Ryou came to live with me and my family after his parents after-,"

"After they started traveling abroad for business!" Ryou interrupted.

"Oh, cool. What exactly did they do, Ryou?" Yugi asked.

"Well, you see my dad..." Ryou began.

_"That's weird," _Clarice thought to herself. Did he not tell them that his parents died? She understood that it was probably something that was hard to talk about, but these people were his friends, right? And he just seemed so defensive about it, Clarice couldn't take her mind off of it.

-**o**o**o**o**o**-

At the end of the school day, the bell rang allow the students to be dismissed back to their homes.

"Hey, Ryou!" Clarice called attempting to get the albino's attention.

Ryou turned around, and waited for Clarice to catch up. "Hey, Clarice. What do you need?" He said in his quirky British accent.

They began walking together. "Well, I was just wondering about earlier..." They began walking. "Why haven't you told Tea and them about your parents passing away? I mean, they're you're friends, right? " Clarice asked, slight curiosity in her voice.

Darkness crept across his face. She realized it was a bad idea to ask him about that. He had always been very sensitive about his parents' death.

"I'm sorry. If it's too hard to-" She began.

"It's fine." Ryou interrupted, forming a smile to hide away his previous dark features.

"I just get very emotional sometimes, when I talk about it. And I'd prefer not to show that side of me to them, yet."

"I understand. It gets really hard to talk about by folks around other people too." She responded, looking down at the ground.

"... Clarice?" He asked softly.

"Hm?" She responded by bringing he head up to look at him.

"I was wondering... There's this place, I like to go to after school. It's a very relaxing place , I go there a lot of the time to clear my thoughts. Would you mind if I showed you?" He asked, shyly.

"Of course not!... But where exactly is this place?" She asked.

"I'll show you." He said while grasping her hand. Clarice's face turned bright red, as she allowed him to guide her to the place he mentioned before.

"We're here." He said, when they arrived to their homes.

"Huh? This is just the apartment building you live in."

He looked to her, pointed his finger up and smiled. He then lead her up the stairs to the top floor of the building, where the rooftop was located. When they opened the door they saw a perfect view of the sun setting in the west. It was surrounded by swirls of pink, and hues of orange and purple. The view was absolutely breathtaking. Clarice wondered why no one else besides Ryou had discovered it. But never the less, she was still in awe of its beauty.

"I come up here, almost every day after school." Ryou began, while he walked over to lean on the railing on the west side of the building.

"It's really a great place, to think and relax. It's kind of like my own little personal sanctuary, you know?" He said, turning towards Clarice. "But it does get a bit lonely up here. I'm really happy you're here now Clarice. It's really nice to have someone who understands what I'm going through, and that I can share this place with." He finished smiling at her.

Clarice's face turned bright red. She'd really missed seeing him the past few years. Not to mention that she still had a massive crush on him. She really hoped that he felt the same way, but she could never read him. His emotions always seemed so uncertain.

"By the way, Clarice. I was wondering... How do you mange to cope with the loss of your parents? You seem so much more emotionally stable than me," He sighs. "I just feel like, you've had a lot easier of a time letting go, than I have." He confessed.

"That's not true. I haven't let it go. I just try to block it out. I haven't thought of the day they were killed in years. But, I still have every part of that memory conjured up in my brain." She laughs solemnly to herself. "I still remember everything perfectly..."

-**o**o**o**o**o**-

_I was going over to Anna's house for her birthday party. When my mom had dropped me off, I had just casually said 'good-bye' to her, not knowing how long that 'good-bye' was going to last. Around half way through the party, was when I got that call from you._

_"Calm down. Is everything alright?" Anna's mother asked while on the phone._

_"Clarice... Get Clarice on the phone... I need-... I need to-... I have to talk to her." The trembling voice on the other line said._

_Anna's mother left the room to come find me. She said that she had begged the voice on the other line to tell her what had happened. But that he had just kept asking to talk to me._

_"Hello?" I said hesitantly._

_"C-Clarice?" The voice asked._

_"Ryou! Is that you? What happened? What's going on?!"_

_"C-Clarice-," I heard a loud banging on the wall, coming through the phone line."You need to get here, immediately," _

_The banging noise again. _

_"S-Someone's in the house,"_

_Again._

_"And-... Them... T-They're gone."_

_There was another loud noise. Then the line disconnected. _

_Surely, surely this was a joke. Or a prank. Or a dream. A nightmare. I would take anything else right now, rather than this being real. This couldn't be real. This can't be real. This can't really be my life._

_I panicked, and begged Anna's mother to take me home. After also listening to the disturbing voice on the other side of the line, she agreed immediately._

_When we arrived at my house, it was quiet. But, dark. There were absolutely no lights shining from the inside of my house. That's when I knew that there was something wrong. Even though we lived in a fairly large house, my parents had always kept all of the lights on. They hated the dark._

_As we pulled into the driveway, I jumped out of the car before we could even come to a complete stop. Anna's mother screamed out for me to not go inside, but I ignored her. The anticipation was killing me. I had to know what was going on. I had to know. I had to know if Ryou was okay, or if my mom was okay or if my dad was okay._

_I shot open the main doors that served as an entrance to the house. I switched the light on and saw the foyer of my house was covered in broken glass from the chandelier that use to hang over the room. Lines of blood stained the stairs and left a trail on the floor to my father's study._

_I quickly followed the trail, ignoring the shreds of glass that began to puncture my bear feet. I slammed the door open to see the one image that will scar my very being forever._

_No..._

_No..._

_NO..._

_I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't hear a thing. Just by looking at them, I couldn't even make out what or who the disheveled bodies before me even were. But in my heart, I knew..._

_**"...And-... And they're gone..."**_

_Ryou's previous statement rang through my body. I let out a sound. I'm not sure if it was cry. Or if it was a scream. At the moment, I couldn't even control the reactions I made. Not a single thought was going through my head. Not a single breath escaped my lungs._

_I ran over to what I thought was my father's body. The flesh had been torn off of his very being . I held onto it as if my life depended on it. I let the blood stain my clothes. This was it. This was the last time I would hug my father... I would never get to see him again. He was gone, forever._

_I felt tears stream down my face, like a waterfall. I heard uncontrolable screams escape from my lips. I screamed as if the very sound would bring them back to life. And maybe I thought it would. I was in absolute hysterics, I had no idea what I was doing or what I could do. Then I saw a figure standing across from me in the door way._

_It was Ryou. Tears were streaming down his face. His clothes were ripped, and there was a large flesh wound on the upper part of his left arm. His whole body was covered in scars and gashes. I could tell he had fought off whoever had done this._

_He staggered over to where I was, and embraced me in a tight hug to try to halt my screams._

_"It's ok." He comforted me. "I'm here now. He's gone. He won't hurt you. I won't let him. I'll protect you. Just, please." My screams began to calm down, and I began breathing heavily."Please, don't leave me."_

-**o**o**o**o**o**-

She couldn't hold back her emotions anymore. She _hated_ thinking about that day or what happened, so she just blocked it out. It worked for the most part, but when she did finally think of what happened o that day, it was impossible to hold back the tears.

"It's strange," She began, allowing tears to stream down her face. " Feel like everyone in my life, anyone that I ever allowed myself to get close to has died. All of them. They either die, or disappear, or leave me in some way or another... Except for you." She looks up to Ryou. "What I'm trying to say I guess is that I'm so happy. I'm so happy that I was able to move here and see you again. I feel like you're the only friend I've ever had that hasn't left me." She sighed, and was about to continue but was interrupted by Ryou embracing her in a hug.

It reminded her a lot of that night when he had hugged her. He made her feel so safe and so loved. **(A/N: D'awwwwww)**

They eventually let go of each other's embrace, and Clarice realized that she needed to head home before her aunt started to worry. They said their goodbyes and Ryou and said that he was going to stay a little while longer on the rooftop to clear his thoughts some more. After her departure, Ryou continued to look at the setting sun.

A dark chuckle escaped his lips, and an out of character smirk appeared across his face.

_"Simple."_

__**A/N: So that's the first legit chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed it! Also, if you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll answer them when I publish the new chappie. **


	3. Sagas

**A/N: Sorry guys! I meant for this to come out sooner, but I got so busy with sorority recruitment and tests and college shiz, that I lost track of time. But without further ado, I present you: Chapter 2!**

Disclaimer: Shockingly enough, I don't own Yu-gi-oh. Bakura would have had much more screen-time if I did.

_**Chapter Two – Sagas**_

The next few weeks went by fairly fast for Clarice. To her surprise he had actually ended up really liking Domino High. She was fairly reserved and quiet at her old school, so she didn't really have a whole lot of friends... Or any for that matter, but that didn't matter now! Because she'd made a lot of friends at her new school.

She wasn't Homecoming queen or anything. But she had succeeded in making a few friends in her Art and PE classes. Also, she'd gotten a lot closer to Tea and her friends. When Mr. Kalphone wasn't lecturing or yelling at someone, she would joke around with Tea, Hana, and Lara. And when they would break for lunch she'd hang around Yugi's desk with Tea, Joey, Tristen, and Ryou. And after school every day, her and Ryou would walk home together and talk on the roof of Ryou's apartment.

Yep, Clarice definitely thought she could get used to this schedule. She'd really been worried about moving to Domino High, and she was so happy to have met so many friendly people. And she was especially happy that she and Ryou had been able to rekindle their friendship so easily. She was really scared that he'd changed after that night, but it seemed like he hadn't.

"It's weird," she thought. Back when they were little, she and Ryou were practically inseperable. But after his dad was killed, his aura seemed to have turned dark. He had seen his own father get murdered, when he was 7. And at least Clarice could live with the comfort of knowing that the man whom had killed her parents received justice. But Ryou's father's murderer had never been caught. Apparently when Ryou saw his dad get murdered, his body went into shock and put him in a post-traumatic coma. He forgot everything, and was in the hospital for months.

She and her parents used to spend hours watching over him in his hospital room, his eyes were completely blood shot, and his body completely without motion, besides the occasional mumblings to himself. Those mumbles use to scare Clarice. They didn't sound like him. They sounded cold, hollow, and without hope, while his usual tone had always been so warm and friendly.

His mother became strangely distant from Ryou after his father passed. They had been told by the doctors that she rarely visited and when she did, all it consisted of was her dropping a vase of flowers on his desk and storming out of the hospital immediately afterwards. She never asked the doctors about his condition. She didn't even really seem to care. It got to the point where even the doctors grew worried. They had asked Clarice's parents what was wrong with her, but they didn't know. Nobody knew, really.

Clarice pondered. She'd always blamed his mother's boyfriend for the woman's sudden change in personality. When she was around Benjamin, Ryou's biological father, she was calm and happy and loved Ryou. But, after he passed she became distant. Less than a month after Ben's death she met Warshal, her new 'boy-toy' who was infamous for corrupting the law in their small sub division.

When Ryou left the hospital and moved back in with his mother and Warshal, that's when Clarice noticed bleakness clouding the features of Ryou's face. Not only had he gone into a depression, but he would also show up to school covered in bruises and scars. Clarice hated Warshal. She hated his greased hair, his un-shaved face, his nose deteriorating body oder, everything.

And even though she felt so strongly about this, she still hated to admit the fact that she felt Warshal and Ryou's mother's deaths were the best thing to have ever happened to Ryou. Once they were gone, she saw a huge wave of relief appear on Ryou's face. She knew he must have loved his mother, but the woman she became around Warshal was not the same woman who had raised and cared for him so.

When he moved in with Clarice and her parents, he went back to being the happy individual he was before his father's death, and he and Clarice were on the same wavelength again. Though, she did notice that he had become strangely attached to her. She assumed it was his way of coping with his parent's deaths. But other than that she was really enjoying his company again. She just hated that it didn't last for very long.

A little over a year later her parents were murdered.

_George Kindermein. _

She would never forget that name for the rest of her life. He was the man who had killed her parents. He was a lower employee of her father's work. He had been going through a lot of financial troubles at the time of her parent's murders, and assumedly the reason he had killed her parents was in an attempt to rob them.

She clinched her fists and tears began to slide down her face. "_How could anyone ever believe that money is worth taking someone's life away for? Why couldn't he just ask my father for a raise?" _Her father was a nice man; she was sure that if Kindermein would have just informed her father of his financial problems, he would have helped.

All life is important. She couldn't comprehend how anyone else could possibly think otherwise.

Then she remembered.

_Ryou._

He had been the one to take George Kindermain's life away. It was in self-defense of course, and there were no charges put against him. She could never imagine kind hearted Ryou purposefully ending someone's life. She chuckled at the idea of it. But she worried about Ryou. It must have been absolutely traumatizing to end someone's life, even if it was in self-defense. She was worried that he would change after that. But surprisingly, he seemed to be the same, if not better. _"He probably tries to block it out. Maybe that's why he didn't want to talk about his parent's deaths. It's just too hard to think about."_ Clarice thought to herself. She then snaps out of her day dream to look at the clock.

"7:45! I'm late!"

She quickly gulped down the rest of her food and rushed out the door to get to school. It was times like these that she really hated the fact that she had to walk to school. She sprinted down the road making sharp turns at a few corners, almost knocking into a middle aged couple. "Sorry!" she called out, turning her head away from the concrete in front of her. And then, she tripped over a small rock placed in front of her. "Ugh! I'm going to get Saturday school for sure!" She quickly stood up and brushed the dirt off of her clothes. "Whatever." She sighed to herself while continuing to walk to school.

She began to approach the entrance of the school and looked at her watch. "7:55. Wow, I still have 5 minutes left." She thought out loud to herself. She then paused, taking in a sigh of relief. She then looked around to notice that no one else was around. _"Wait a second…"_ She then remembered that her watch was 5 minutes fast. _"Shit!"_

She barged through the doors and began to run to class. There was absolutely no way she was getting Saturday school! She noticed more students lingering in the hallway, whispering about her frantic sprints. But she had no time to worry about that! If she didn't make it to class on time, she'd get Saturday school, and if she got Saturday school Aunt Maria would-!

Halfway through that thought she crashed into another frantic student running the opposite direction. The collision caused both of them to fall back, and the causing boy she collided into's disheveled binder to scatter across the hallway floor.

"I'm so sorry!" Clarice apologized, while paper floated down around them.

"It's fine." He said nonchalantly while looking at the ground, attempting to collect his papers. He had short brown hair, square glasses, and a flurry of pimples residing on the bottom of his chin. The boy looked up to see her and immediately began to blush and frantically collect his papers.

"Here, let me help you with that," Clarice politely insisted.

"No, no, it's fine. Really, I got it." He insisted while still looking down and blushing furiously.

"_Is he nervous or something?"_ She thought to herself. "No, I insist! It's my fault that you dropped them." She said while continuing to gather up papers.

She then handed the papers to him. "Thanks," He replied. Aren't you Clarice? The girl who moved here from Wendover?" He asked, attempting to seem as nonchalant as possible.

Clarice easily saw through his façade. "Uh, yeah. But how did you know I'm from Wendover?"

"Oh, did I say that?" He said nervously. "I don't want to sound weird, or anything. I just heard from someone that you were from Wendover, and I um, thought it was pretty cool because my favorite author lives there." He said, consistently fast.

"_Does he have a crush on me? He's acting nervous enough."_ She looked him over. _"He's not really my type. But, he seems sweet."_ She smiled inwardly to herself. It was nice to think that maybe someone had a crush on her. It was definitely something she wasn't use to. "What author?" she asked. She didn't read much, so she wasn't aware that one lived in her hometown.

"Oh, she's not one of the really popular ones. But her name is Diane Killingsworth, she wrote the 'Sagas' Trilogy.

"Never heard of it. What's it about?"

He began to go on some long rant about a boy, who found out he was an alien… Or maybe it was zombie? Well, it was something like that. Clarice zoned out halfway through his summary of the plot.

_**Ring-ring.**_

"Well, it looks like we're officially late! What class are you heading out to?" She asked while beginning to walk to her class.

"Mr. Lawson. I have the same homeroom as you." He said awkwardly while following her.

"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry, I guess I just never noticed you in there before."

"It's fine. I sit in the back, and I don't really have any friends in that class. So I don't talk much in it." He said with slight embarrassment in his voice.

"Well now you do have a friend in there!" Clarice smiled at him. The boy blushed, and Clarice also slightly blushed in return. "That reminds me. I don't think I ever caught your name?" She asked.

"Damien." He replied smiling. As they continued to walk to class, the two continued friendly small talk. As she continued to talk to him, she felt more comfortable in his presence. And dare she say it, but she thought he actually seemed kind of cute. Maybe not in a handsome sort of way like Ryou, but in a dorky adorable sort of way. She smiled to herself. But even though she was enjoying the boy's company, she couldn't shake this eerie feeling that they were being watched.

The rest of the day went by fairly normal, until fourth period when she noticed that Ryou was absent. She wondered if maybe he was sick, he seemed fine yesterday. "_He's probably just skipping." _She giggled to herself.

To Clarice's demise, she had to stay afterschool for detention. It was incredibly tiring and not to mention incredibly boring. On her way home she reminded herself never to be late for school for three days in a row, again. And of course, her aunt decided to remind her of that also. Through yelling. Lots and lots, of yelling. She decided that today was turning out to be a pretty crappy day. But surely tomorrow would have to be better.

**-**o**o**o**o**o**-**

She woke up the next day running late, again. She had the feeling that this was going to be a bad week. She then rushed to school, barely making it on time. When Clarice arrived at her classroom she noticed that her new friend Damien was absent. She usually would blow off her worries, thinking that he was probably sick, or just skipping school. But she had that eerie feeling that she was being watched again. When she arrived to her 4th period class, she noticed that Ryou was absent again. _"That's strange. I guess he isn't skipping."_ She thought to herself.

Her and the rest of the class suffered through Mr. Kalphone's lecture, for around 30 minutes and then were dismissed for lunch break. At lunch-break everyone split off to find their group of friends, leaving Clarice to wander to Yugi's desk, still slightly worried about Ryou's absence.

"Hey, do you guys know where Ryou is? I haven't heard from him in a while." Clarice asked.

The group around Yugi's desk became silent for a few moments. "I don't really know, exactly. But, he does this every once in a while…" Tea answered.

"Does what? Skip school a lot?"

"Not exactly," Tristan says, entering the conversation.

"What do you mean?" Clarice asked, beginning to worry.

"Well, he's not exactly skipping school. He has a good reason for not coming to school." Tristan continues.

"So, what's wrong with him? Is he sick?"

"I guess, you could say that," Joey comments.

"Why are you guys being so secretive? Just tell me what's going on." A now slightly aggravated Clarice states.

"Ehh… Well, you see. That Bakura kid is a special case." Joey continues. "He's kind of _off_, you could say."

"I don't understand."

"What Joey's trying to say, is that Bakura is a total nutcase." Tristan interrupts.

"Oh! Real nice, Tristen!" Joey exclaims.

"Well, somebody needed to say it!" Tristan argues. Clarice looks down.

"Now look what you did! You upset the poor girl!" Joey replies.

"What's wrong with you guys? You're supposed to be his friends, but you're acting like he's some sort of criminal! Ryou's been through a lot in his life, and he deserves our support!" Clarice states firmly.

"Clarice!" Tea begins. "It's not that we aren't his friends! It's just…"

"We have a hard time trusting him." Yugi finishes.

"Why?"

"Well," he begins. "About a year ago, we-"

"Attention class!" The teacher interrupts. "Lunchtime is over. Please return back to your assigned seats."

Clarice sighs deeply and returns back to her seat. The rest of the day was filled with concern about Tea and her friends not 'trusting' Ryou. She usually wouldn't get so heated up over an argument, but this was different. Ryou had been through a lot of hard times in his life, and he deserved friends that can trust him. Or actually care about him, at the least.

He finally seemed happy for the first time in 10 years, but now he couldn't even have friends that genuinely cared about him. She was so aggravated. But somehow, she managed to make it through the rest of the school day.

After school, Clarice decided not to talk to Tea like usual. But instead, she decided to head straight home. She felt it would be better to confront them tomorrow, after she cooled off. When she arrived at her apartment building, she decided to go next door to visit Ryou. She entered the building, walked up the staircase to the second level, and when she arrived to his room she knocked twice.

"Ryou?" She knocked again. "Ryou, are you in there?" She knocked one last time. "Hello?" She sighed. In one last attempt, she wondered if the door was locked, and decided to gently twist the door knob. And to her surprise the door was open.

The door creaked open to reveal a disheveled room. The couch that stood in the middle back of the room, had now been torn to shreds and flipped over, his tv now had a broken screen with its glass shards spread across the floor, and then she noticed that some of the silverware and dishes from the kitchen had been thrown and broken.

"_What the hell?"_ She then heard a faint cry coming from inside the apartment. "Ryou! Is that you?" she called out.

She then heard the cry, again. This time she noticed that it was coming from a closet on the right side of her, located next to the entrance of the kitchen. She hesitantly walked towards the closet, and opened the door. To her surprise, there was no one in there, but the cry she had been hearing sounded closer than before. That was then she realized it was coming from the suitcase inside. _"Maybe, it's an alarm he forgot to turn off? Yes Clarice. An alarm he set to go off at 3:30 pm, with someone screaming as his ringtone. Of course. That must be it."_ She inwardly scolded herself. She picked up the briefcase, and slowly clicked open the tabs on its side. She then silently opened up its lid to see what was inside.

… It was _toys? _

They looked like figurines that would be used for a board game. But some of them looked oddly familiar… Then it hit her, one of the figurines looked exactly like Martin. Then, she noticed the one sitting right beside it looked like her friend Damien. She also noticed that the yelling noise, was gone now. What she heard now, was what sounded like nervous panting.

"_**Turn."**_ She thought she heard from the doll that resembled Damien. "What?" She leaned in closer.

"You _really_ shouldn't meddle in other people's affairs." She heard a voice from behind her say.

"Oh! I'm sorry Ryou." She apologized while turning around. "…You're not Ryou." She said frightened.

"_Very_ Perceptive."

**A/N: DUN. DUN. DUUUN. Cliffhanger! –ish…**

**Hey guys! I know this chapter is kind of slow, but it contains A LOT of important info for the chapters coming up ahead. And I promise there will a lot more of Bakura in the next chapter too! Just a heads up, another reason why this chapter took longer than expected, was because I got another idea for a fic that I really want to start working on too. I'd like to wait to work on it AFTER I'm done with this story, but it really just depends on how many reviews you guys give this one.**

**So if you love it, REVIEW. If you hate it, REVIEW. **


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